'We'll have two beepers on the dinner table this Christmas — and hopefully three next year'
On-call this Christmas: Karen and Luke Sweeney next to the Elizabeth and Ronald lifeboat in the Harbour at Dunmore East, Co Waterford. Picture Dan Linehan
Thousands of essential workers across the country will once again miss out on Christmas this year in order to make sure the country stays running. We talk to some of them about being on call during the festive season.
Karen Harris Sweeney has only volunteered as deputy launching authority for the RNLI in Dunmore East for two years, but the organisation has always been a part of her life.
Growing up, her mother, who was a fundraiser for the station, used to send Karen down to the pier with a boat-shaped box to collect donations. Her father was a chairperson in the organisation before his passing, she went on to marry a crew member, and eventually volunteer herself. In the past year, her son came on board as well.
“The first thing you do when you wake up is to take the pager off the nightstand and clip it onto the belt. It’s just ingrained into you,” she says of the 24/7 device. “If it goes off then you’ve got your job to do and you just do it, it doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas or not. If someone needs your help you have to be there for them.”
Karen says the crew never knows what the week will bring, but they treat every call the same no matter the day of the year.
“You can have two shouts a week or you might go a month without any and a huge one will come in like the Lily B,” she says, referencing the 4,000-tonne cargo ship that her son Luka recently helped to save from running ashore after it lost power near Hook Head.
“It just shows that anything can happen, you always have to be ready,” the 18-year-old says. “Mom’s beeper goes off before mine so she’ll kind of give me the eyes and we know we just need to get going.”
Luka had planned to travel to Dubai after doing his Leaving Certificate earlier this year but decided to stay home to work and volunteer like his parents when Covid-19 hit. He says that he doesn’t mind being on call for Christmas, especially since he can’t go out with his friends anyway this year. Even if he could, however, he’d prefer to be out on the boat.
Karen says her role as a volunteer takes over from her role as a mother while at work and she’s delighted that her next youngest son also wants to volunteer when he turns 17 this month. Karen’s husband Gavin retired from the crew to focus on the family’s business, Dunmore East Adventure Centre, but he'll usually head to the pier during a big call to watch his son head out to sea.
“I never would have a fear about sending them out with the crew and the boat that’s there,” she says. “Growing up beside the sea you know where your parameters are and you get comfortable with it, but you’re always on tenterhooks, especially this time of year.”
This Christmas there’ll be two pagers on the Sweeney dinner table, but both are happy to be ready to go no matter what. "There will always be help at hand no matter the day," Karen says. "People should never be embarrassed to call the lifeboat."
CUH nurse manager Liam Donoghue has worked about 15 Christmases throughout his career, mostly in the emergency department, which is busier than usual this time of year.
“The people that come in at Christmas time tend to be very, very, sick. They put off coming in because they don’t want to go into the hospital this time of year,” Liam explains. “Sometimes your Christmas Day can be the busiest day of the year and it can go by and you don’t realise it’s Christmas at all. But usually, people would take a little bit of time at least to acknowledge that it’s Christmas and to acknowledge each other.”
Liam says that there is one ward that always outdoes the rest when it comes to Christmas spirit. “The children’s ward especially try to make it look Christmassy. The staff that are on try to make the spirit as good as they can and they make sure that Santa comes. It’s just a matter of trying to make it as homely as possible. Everyone wants to ensure that these children have a Christmas.”
Liam’s noticed more cheer than usual throughout the entire hospital this month though, as staff bundle together after a tough year battling Covid-19.
“I think it’s brought people a lot closer. All sorts of staff, not just nurses and doctors but porters, plumbers, catering staff, and housekeeping, everybody’s really pulled together this year. I think people have an awful lot of appreciation for each other and you can really see that coming up to Christmas. You can feel a spirit of camaraderie,” he says.
Though the staff will have a socially-distant Christmas dinner together, it’s still important to them to celebrate with their families once they finally make it home.
“When you come off the week people are always saying ‘Christmas is over,’ but I always think Christmas is for the whole of December,” Liam says. “You just try to make the best of it.”
Of the 12 years she’s worked in healthcare, Cavan-based auxiliary carer Samantha Caudle has only had around three Christmas Days off.
“The residents are generally a lot happier during Christmas,” she says of the nursing homes she’s worked in. “There’s music, some nice food, they know they’re going to see their families and some might actually go out for Christmas Day. There’s a lot of excitement for them.”
Samantha says she doesn’t mind working during the festive season, usually visiting her family in England soon after in pre-Covid years, and has often given up her Christmas so that other staff members with children can spend it at home.
“It’s nice to be able to go in and say that you're making a difference to somebody’s Christmas,” she says. “Some of the clients you’re looking after might not have any family or they might associate it with the loss of a loved one. So, there’s a sad side to it as well, but at least in a nursing home they’ll always have someone around them.”
The Christmas before last, Samantha spent the day with a patient in their home under a HSE scheme. The woman, in her early 40s, had spent the past few Christmases in hospital and it was her first one at home with her two young children. It was, sadly also her last.
“Doing this job really makes you realise that you have things a lot easier than some people,” she says. “I think this year there’s going to be a lot more loneliness. It’s going to be tough for those whose families don’t live close by and can’t even come to the window. The staff will be feeling it too because they won’t necessarily be able to go and see their family either. But I do think there’s going to be a bit more of a community spirit.”
National Ambulance Service call taker Victoria Meade similarly feels the community spirit will be stronger this year, while she works from the 23 to 26 of December for the second year in a row.
There are two NAS control centres in the country and together they usually take between 1000 to 1200 calls per day. At Christmas, the 18 call takers on duty are even busier than usual.
“The morning usually starts off as normal but around the Christmas period the calls do tend to increase, just from people travelling home for Christmas. There would usually be an increase in calls for road traffic incidents and then the normal hustle and bustle of Christmas. People can be clumsy, there could be falls and that type of thing,” says Victoria.
“It hits home a little bit more if somebody needs us on Christmas Day. But people do need us on Christmas Day as well as any other day. You’d obviously love for emergencies to stop over the period but they don’t unfortunately. But you have to get on with it, it's the same as every other day. Business as usual.”
Victoria says though some calls can be sad, there are happy endings too and the team are always in good spirits around the festive period.
“We would have our Christmas dinners and everything planned to have with each other. There is good cheer between calls and we keep each other's spirits up. It’s nice to work with your close colleagues over Christmas. It makes it that much easier.”
Victoria will get to go home and celebrate a belated Christmas with her family, however she is conscious that others may not be so lucky.
“Be safe and cautious and look after each other [this Christmas],” she says. “If you need us don’t hesitate to call 999 or 112. We will be there waiting to take your call.”
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